How to Get Rid of Cold Sores

Once in your lifetime you must have experienced these weird inflamed blisters, which is known as cold sores, in or near your mouth. And you must have thought how to get rid of cold sores.

What are cold sores? Actually, cold sore is a skin condition, which is caused by herpes simplex virus (HSV). It is also known as herpes labials, fever blisters or orolabial herpes (a widespread condition when sores appear both on the face and the mouth).

Cold sores take 2-3 weeks of time to heal. They appear in 12 episodes or more in a year as the virus stay dormant in the facial nerves and wait for the right time to reactivate and create cold sores in the mouth.

While suffering from cold sores, the skin around the blisters or cold sores appears red, swollen, and sore.

Symptoms of Cold Sores

The symptoms of cold sores in the mouth and the lips follow a planned journey of 8 stages. By knowing about each stage and the related symptoms, you will come to know how long do cold sores last.

Here you will learn about all the cold sore symptoms to easily detect it.

Stage I: Firstly, for weeks or maybe months no symptoms will be observed. In this stage, the contagious virus enters into the body.

Stage II: This stage lasts for few hours or for few it may last for few days. Remember, this is the stage when you must start your treatment. On the 1st day, you will experience an itching sensation on the skin. The skin also becomes red in this stage.

Stage III: In this stage the skin around the infected area gets inflamed.

Stage IV: Day 2 to day 3 of cold sore is often referred as a pre-sore period. The infected skin gets inflamed pimple-like blisters on it, which pain when you touch them.

Stage V: Are cold sores contagious? This is the general question that comes to mind of the person who suffers from cold sores. For your information, I must tell you that cold sores are contagious.

On day 4, when the blisters of cold sores start to break open, it creates ulcers in the infected area. The infected fluids in the blisters contain the contagious active virus. Some people might suffer from fever in this stage.

Stage VI: From day 5 to 8, the blisters will start crusting, which does not have active virus. This is when the healing process begins. While smiling or eating, the stretching of your lips may open the crusts.

Stage VII: From day 9 to day 12, the healing process would help you come close to the relief phase. The new skin forms under the scab. Itching and pain due to these cold sores inside the mouth are observed in this phase too.

Stage VIII: Starting from day 12 to 14, new cells start generating on the skin.

Causes of Cold Sores

What are the causes of cold sores? The answer to this question will help a lot in finding out the right home remedies to treat it.

Do you know that the cold sores never leave your body once they enter as HSV-1? They move into your body through the broken skin around or inside your mouth and stay dormant in your central nervous system.

Now, if you are wondering what causes cold sores, then you must know that this could get triggered due to:

Note: Newborn babies can get the HSV-1 virus from the family members or from hospital staff who act as carriers of cold sores.

Home Remedies for Cold Sores

It is a true fact that home remedies for cold sores are readily available at home. Being natural, they hardly cause any complications in your body, unlike medicines that are composed of various chemicals and cause various side effects upon its use.

Treat the cold sores completely using the home remedies that are mentioned below:

1. Cold and Wet Towel Treatment

This treatment helps to contract the dilated blood vessels and reducing the swelling. Its application helps in proper blood circulation to the area, thus reduces the redness of cold sores immediately.

Things you need:

A soft hand towel

Ice cold water – A bowl

Things you should do:

Dip the hand towel in the ice cold water.

Squeeze out the extra water from the wet hand towel.

Now apply this cold and wet hand towel on your cold sores on the lips and mouth.

2. Organic Vanilla Extract

Organic vanilla extract contains alcohol in it, which makes it hard for the virus to flourish. You can use organic vanilla extract, which is considered as one of the best home remedies for cold sores. Its use can give you relief from the tingling sensation of the cold sores.

Things you need:

Organic vanilla extract – 1 tsp

A cotton swab – 5 to6

Things you should do:

Soak a cotton swab in the vanilla extract.

Apply this over the cold sores on lips and other places around the mouth.

Do this daily for 4 times to treat cold sores.

Continue doing this to get rid of cold sores completely.

3. How to Get Rid of Cold Sores with Licorice Root

Licorice root contains a compound called glycyrrhizic acid, which works wonders on cold sores. They can stop the virus to act further to aggravate the condition.

Things you need:

Licorice root powder – 1 tsp

Water – ½ tsp

Cotton swab – 5 to 6

A bowl

Things you should do:

Mix 1 tsp of licorice root powder with ½ tsp water in a bowl to get a creamy consistency.

Use a cotton swab to apply this mixture on the cold sores and apply a thin layer of this mixture on the lip.

Hey all, I am Suzanne, I love collecting new information on natural cure for health ailments. I always feel that nature has remedies for all our health problems, we just have to use it in the right way. I am DIY pursuer and thus keep trying natural things to get rid of nasty diseases. You will be amazed to know about the treasure mother earth has and how it can help us improve our health. Join me in a journey which take you closer to nature and keep you healthy.